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Friday, April 15, 2016

5 Signs You Are Not A Leader After All - Inc. Magazine

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Inc. Magazine recently posted an article regarding 5 Signs You Are Not A Leader After All. In it, the author (Nicolas Cole) discusses how Leadership isn't a title, although it certainly seems to be assumed a lot. Nicolas then goes on to identify 5 signs that you really aren't a leader. Now his list is a good one, but it is missing a couple of items. I won't rehash his list here, you can click the above link to read it.

Here's what's missing (at first glance):

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6. You have no plan to achieve your goals. Sadly, I've run across more and more people with leadership titles who work day to day, but don't take the time to plan forward. They may even have Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) they are supposed to meet, yet they blindly hope that at the end of the period they are on target. A leader needs to do more than day to day, otherwise they are just a worker. Have you taken the time to get above the day to day and look at goals, and determine the plan?

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7. You don't review the processes and actions of your team and determine how to make improvements. Leadership isn't only about having a plan, but also about learning from mistakes and finding better, faster, cleaner ways to do the work. This is particularly true when it comes to repetitive processes. As discussed earlier this week during one of my Leadership Lunches (starting to make their way to my YouTube Channel) on Periscope (@C4Leader, via the AppStore and Google Play stores), if you are doing the same thing because "You've always done it that way." then you are potentially ignoring problems. With change being a constant, and new ideas being expressed, you cannot rely on "always done it that way." Otherwise you end up like Blockbuster.

Now that you know some of the traps, work hard to avoid them. What next steps should you be making, now that you've read this? What other traps aren't covered in this entry or the original article? I welcome your input!